Page 17 of Fool Me Twice

Jaxon lunged at her, enveloping her in a giant hug. “You’re the best, Mum.” He squeezed her tightly. “Have I ever told you that?”

“Yes,” she tried to force out, her face squashed against his chest. “Every time I do your, ouch, dirty work.”

“What’s that?” he teased, kissing the top of her head again. “You love me? Well, I love you too, Mum.”

Once the doctor had finished his examination, Jaxon badgered the staff about seeing Peter, ignoring Evie’s reasoning that he needed to rest. Jaxon recognised one of the nurses as the older sister of someone he’d been at school with and persuaded her to let him see his father once the charge nurse went on her break.

As soon as the charge nurse left the station for her break, the nurse inclined her head slightly toward Jaxon, indicating for him to follow her. Not wanting to make it obvious she was giving Jaxon any preferential treatment and risk getting into trouble with her boss, she waited for them away from the nurse’s station to give them directions to Peter’s room. “Five minutes,” she said before hurrying off.

Following the nurse’s instructions, they found Peter’s room. Jaxon hesitated. “Do you want me to come in with you?” she asked, sensing his fear. Despite her personal feelings about the man, Peter was still his father.

Jaxon nodded and took a deep breath before opening the door.

Seeing Peter lying in a hospital bed, battered and bruised, hadn’t given Evie the satisfaction she’d always imagined it would. When she’d first found out the kind of man Peter really was, she’d spent months thinking of all the ways she’d have liked to make him suffer. But seeing him like this, with a dressing on his head, his shoulder immobilised in a sling and his leg elevated slightly with a brace covering his knee, she had to admit that it didn’t give her the pleasure she’d always thought it would.

With Peter drifting in and out of sleep, Evie reminded Jaxon of what both the nurse and doctor had said about the painkillers making Peter drowsy. “Come on,” she said, touching him lightly on the shoulder. “I think it’s time we went, so he can have some rest.”

Jaxon walked across to Peter, and the look that clouded his face made Evie’s breath catch in her throat. It was the same look as when he’d been a boy and hadn’t been able to get to the tiny sparrow who’d fallen out of its nest before that menacing ginger tom cat got hold of it. Jaxon had fought courageously to prise its mangled body from the tomcat’s jaws, his skinny little arms covered in bloodied scratches and bites, but he’d been too late.

That evening as the sun went down, Jaxon had gently placed the small box he’d spent the afternoon decorating into a hole in the ground next to Bobby, his pet rabbit, and stood there bravely fighting back the tears as his grandfather said a little prayer for the poor, departed Chickie.

Reluctantly, Evie packed away some of her clothes and personal items from her wardrobe and drawers to make space for her new house guest. Giving up her bedroom for Peter hadn’t been an easy choice, but since it was on the ground floor and had a large en-suite bathroom with double sized shower, it made more sense for Peter to use it during his recovery. The glass bi-fold doors opened out onto the patio area and would allow Peter easy access to the pool when he was ready to begin his physiotherapy sessions and get back on his feet. And as far as Evie was concerned, it couldn’t happen soon enough

After changing the bedsheets, she laid out some fresh towels and threw open the doors and windows to let in that breeze. Evie had always loved the ocean. Closing her eyes, she inhaled deeply and imagined the warm sand between her toes and the sun on her face. Her lungs filled with the fresh fragrant air laced with sea salt, rosemary, and coconut sunscreen. If she really concentrated, blocking out the distant chatter and screeching gulls, she could just make out the sounds of the waves rolling over the golden sands, shimmering like millions of tiny crystals in the sun.

Exhaling slowly through her mouth, she opened her eyes and smiled. She lived in one of the most beautiful places on God’s earth, had an amazing son and daughter-in-law, fantastic friends and a successful business. Her life was pretty great, and she wasn’t about to let Peter Cook spoil it.

Chapter eight

The doctor extended Peter’s stay, claiming he wanted to monitor him after his blow to the head, but Peter wasn’t convinced, since he spent what felt like every spare minute he had grilling Peter about his days in the band. Jaxon had already pushed back his return flight as far as he could without missing ORTS’s first performance. As it was, he’d have no time to recover from the jet lag before he was due onstage.

Finally, the day he’d been waiting for arrived. He wasn’t exactly thrilled about staying with Evie, but it was the only way to get Jaxon on that plane. He sensed Evie’s annoyance the moment she entered the room, although he wasn’t exactly sure who she was more annoyed at.

The nurses for asking after Jaxon every time they saw her, asking for his number so they could keep him posted on his father’s condition or offering Evie their own to pass on to Jaxon should he have questions about Peter’s progress.

Or maybe it was the enormity of what the coming weeks had in store for her, with him being so completely reliant on her for everything.

He wasn’t exactly thrilled about the prospect, either. She’d made her feelings and opinions about him very clear since he’d become part of Jaxon’s life. And he didn’t exactly relish the thought of being so dependent on her for even the more personal tasks a man would rather do in private.

The last time she’d seen him naked was twenty-odd years ago; back then, they’d spent most of their time naked. Now he was older, wrinklier, a little saggier, and he wasn’t sure he was up for one of her censorious looks, the kind she had when she was taking you in, trying to get the measure of you. She’d made it very clear that as far as she was concerned, he failed on every front.

The minutes ticked by slowly as they waited in silence for the doctor to finish his ward rounds. There were only so many times he could apologise for putting her out, and he’d exhausted the list of small talk during the couple of brief visits she’d made since Jaxon’s departure. Evie checked her watch again.

“I can get a taxi if you need to be somewhere.”

“No, it’s fine,” she said, staring up at the wall clock.

But he knew it was anything but fine. He didn’t like the situation any more than she did, and had cursed his stupidity every day since the accident.

“Sorry, sorry,” the doctor said as he breezed in. “Right then.” He studied Peter’s notes. “I need to do a quick examination before chucking you out.” He laughed. “Only joking. I’d never do that to a patient. Well, not if that patient is Cookie.” He mimed a strange kind of drumming action and grinned.

“I’ll be outside.” Evie got up to leave, mumbling something about privacy, but Peter caught her rolling her eyes at the doctor’s antics.

“Okay,” Peter said, wishing he could escape with her.

For fifteen minutes Peter humoured the doctor, nodded in all the right places when he talked about their music and told him about the time he’d gone to one of their concerts but had got so drunk beforehand that he’d passed out and spent the evening in a nearby field throwing up. Then he started firing off questions about the other band members while he examined him, but Peter was used to this kind of thing and had perfected his answers over the years to cause the least offence.

“No, Mac wasn’t really that bad.” He wasn’t going to admit to this stranger that his best friend could be a real pain in the arse with his mood swings. “The press blew it way out of proportion.”

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